A little girl steps into the shop, eyes wide, fingers trailing across rows of colorful clothes. She stops when a glimmer of sparkle catches her eye and pulls out a dress, the prettiest one she's ever seen, and her face lights up. Minutes later, she's clutching it in her hands, asking if she can wear it out the door. Moments like that are exactly why Frisco Threads exists.
As a clothes closet program led by the Frisco ISD council of PTAs, their first day open for the 2026-2027 school year will be Thursday, August 13th. They have been closed for the summer, but Chair for Community Relations Tara Childers and the Frisco Threads team have been preparing to serve students as summer ends.
"We provide clothing and shoes to economically disadvantaged students enrolled in Frisco ISD, and we're supported entirely through clothing and monetary donations from donors and community partners," Tara said. "Our mission is: we want every student in Frisco ISD, every student in need, to have access to clothing so they can feel confident and comfortable and ready to succeed. We really want to remove those barriers that impact their confidence and well-being, so they feel like they can fully participate in school."
Realizing that there were programs that addressed food and hygiene insecurity but not shoes and clothing insecurity, Frisco Threads was born to close that gap and has served Frisco ISD students for the past five years. Tara said that over 1,900 hours of community service and over 150 volunteers went into keeping things running for the 2025-2026 school year, and they look forward to more as the need grows.
"I think it's important that we make sure all of our students and community feel confident," Tara said. "I think there's a direct correlation between a student's confidence and their ability to learn and be successful. I just saw it as a real, tangible way to give back, and then once we got started, I just fell in love with what we do and what we provide to the community."
Once they open back up, Tara said they will begin accepting donations on Mondays and Thursdays of any clothing size 3T and up, clean and current style. Socks and underwear donations will need to be unopened packages, but they accept gently used tops, bottoms, coats, winter hats and gloves, and dresses.
"The times that it's most touching is when families bring their kids in the shop, and you can just see the joy on a little girl's face when she finds the prettiest dress and she's so excited to take it home; a lot of times the kids even want to change into their clothes and wear them to school," Tara said. "It's really heartwarming to see the joy the kids find in finding that special top, that special dress, or cool pair of shoes, that they wouldn't otherwise have been able to get."
Frisco Threads accepts clothing donations on Mondays and Thursdays at the Acker Special Programs Center on 7159 Hickory Street and monetary donations online at friscopta.org/frisco-threads.html.